MARIETTA, Ohio — For four innings Saturday, Thomas More freshman pitcher Ken Ruberg was living a childhood dream.

"It was really exciting for me. I've been looking forward to it for a long time," Ruberg said. "That's the kind of thing you dream about as a little kid. Out there in the last inning with the game-winning run at the plate, got two outs and you got to go out and shut them down."

Ruberg, who had held Marietta scoreless for three innings, needed one more out when the Pioneers started to rally. Instead of buckling under the pressure, Ruberg threw one more slider and junior Ryan Hanahan popped up to second baseman Jason Handley to give the Saints a 7-5 victory in the 2014 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional at Don Schaly Stadium.

With the win, Thomas More (25-18) will play at 2:15 p.m. Sunday against the winner of Case Western Reserve and La Roche.

"Kenny getting thrown into a situation where he has to throw against Marietta in a regional at their place was just outstanding," said Thomas More coach Jeff Hetzer. "Kenny got a lot of confidence last week at the conference tournament, and obviously it fed into this one today as well."

Ruberg gave up four hits, including two in the ninth, but he seemed to find a way to keep Marietta (30-16) from plating a run.

"I don't know if he shut them down, but he was hitting his spots and if anybody is like that you get outs and it gets tighter and tighter. We tried to put pressure on Marietta, if you can actually put pressure on Marietta because they've been here so many times," Hetzer said. "He did a great job and we made some great plays behind him."

One of those huge plays came in the eighth inning, but it was while Thomas More was on offense.

With the game tied at 5 in the eighth inning, Tyler Graber laid down a perfect safety squeeze that scored Nick Connor. The Saints scored another run on Casey Metzger's single up the middle. But Graber's sacrifice bunt was a surprise and big play.

"I have not problem with it," Graber said. "Whatever (coach) calls I'll do it."

Hetzer has complete confidence in Graber in those pressure situations.

"You got to have the right guys on. You have to have a smart guy on third and the right guy at the plate," Hetzer said. "For us … Tyler was the smart guy at the plate for us. We trust him. He's our best bunter. For me that was an easy play."

Marietta struggled earlier in the day to string together hits in a 5-4 loss to Widener, but the Pioneers didn't waste any time getting after Thomas More starter Brandon Humphrey.

With two outs in the first inning, senior Josh Ungerbuehler floated a double down the right-field line that plated junior Ryan Hanahan and sophomore Tyler Packanik for an early 2-0 lead.

Marietta was right back at it in the second inning when senior Zach Bukiewicz single up the middle scoring junior Christian Demko for a 3-0 advantage.

The Saints started chipping away at the Marietta lead with a run in the third, and then took a 4-3 lead with three runs in the fourth off of reliever Kordell Antill. The first run scored on a throwing error by Antill on Cody Makin's sacrifice bunt. The other two runs came on a single by Brad Popham and a sacrifice fly by Tyler Graber.

The Pioneers scored two runs in the fifth inning to take a 5-4 lead, but the Saints rallied for a run in the sixth to tie it up again.